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Hospitality Properties Trust Amends Management Agreement With RMR

Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE: HPT) today announced that it has amended its business management agreement with Reit Management & Research LLC, or RMR, effective January 1, 2014. The amended agreement implements the previously announced plan to change the business management agreement, as follows:

New Base Management Fee:

The new calculation of the base management fee will be based on approximately 0.5% multiplied by the lower of: (i) the historical cost of HPT’s real estate assets or (ii) HPT’s total market capitalization. The comparatively low level of general and administrative, or G&A, expenses that HPT has historically enjoyed will continue, but with this change it is possible that G&A expenses may further decline if the market value of HPT’s common shares declines.

10% of the base fee will be paid in HPT’s common shares. As a result, management’s share ownership is expected to increase over time.

New Incentive Fee:

The new incentive fee will be calculated based on total return per share (dividends and share price changes) realized by HPT’s shareholders in comparison to the total return of the SNL U.S. REIT Hotel Index, or the Benchmark. The incentive fee formula will be based on the amount of outperformance, if any, realized by HPT’s shareholders during the measurement periods compared to the Benchmark, multiplied by a 12% participation rate. For example, if HPT’s shareholders’ total return is 10% during the measurement period and the Benchmark’s total return is 5% during that same period, the incentive fee will be 12% of the 5% of total outperformance realized by HPT’s shareholders.

The measurement period for the new incentive fee will be a rolling, cumulative three year period starting January 1, 2014. In other words, the incentive fee payable at the end of 2016 will be based upon the outperformance realized by HPT’s shareholders compared to the Benchmark cumulatively during 2014, 2015 and 2016; the incentive fee payable at the end of the 2017 would be based upon the cumulative outperformance realized in 2015, 2016 and 2017; etc.

No incentive fee will be payable by HPT in the event the total return realized during any measurement period is negative, even if the total return realized by HPT’s shareholders exceeds the Benchmark. Also, the incentive fee formula includes a “high performance modifier” so that, within specific parameters, if the total return realized by HPT’s shareholders over a three year period exceeds 36% an adjusted incentive fee may be paid.

The incentive fee will be paid in HPT’s common shares. The annual payment of the incentive fee will be limited, or capped, at 1.5% of the number of HPT’s common shares outstanding at the end of each measurement period. Common shares issued for payment of the incentive fees will vest over a multi-year period and the shares will be subject to “claw back” in the event of subsequent financial restatements. Also, because it will take three years for the new incentive fee formula to become fully effective, a one year interim fee may be paid at the end of 2014 and a two year cumulative interim fee may be paid at the end of 2015 based on outperforming the pro-rata hurdles in each of those periods.

The previous incentive fee arrangement was based on a percentage of annual increases in cash available for distribution, or CAD, per share. The new incentive fee formula is intended to more directly align the fee paid with the total return realized by shareholders relative to HPT’s hotel REIT peers.